British PM David Cameron heads meeting on Greek Referendum

London: British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday chaired a meeting of senior ministers and officials to assess the impact on Britain of Greece’s “No” vote on its austerity package.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and Chancellor George Osborne, who will address the MPs later, were present at the meeting.

The headquarters of the executive arm of the British government said in a statement that contingency plans were already in place following the “decisive” referendum outcome, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported.

According to the BBC report, the British government could not “stand back” from events in Greece, with over two million Britons visiting the country each year and over 40,000 residing there.

Before the vote, Cameron had predicted Greece would leave the eurozone if it voted “No” because it would be a “very significant default and a very significant problem”, and the chancellor has warned Britain “cannot be immune” from the Greek crisis.

The Greek people on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected the European Union’s (EU) bailout offer with stringent conditions by 61.3 percent voting “No” to 38.7 percent voting “Yes” in Sunday’s referendum.

European Union (EU) officials warned that it could see the country ejected from the eurozone.

UK is in the state of mourning and there’s an atmosphere of politic toxicity

Brexit was a boiling pot waiting to explode, that the resentment of the public in UK had reached its ‘Breaking Point’

There’s a petition doing the rounds that is demanding for a second EU referendum

Brexit- Britain exit- a final act by the UK to seal shut their borders, to put an end to the growing fears of Terrorism, to retain the 350 mn pounds a week, which went as Membership fees to the EU and well, to be in charge of making their own laws and relationships. All the above and then some more were the reasons cited by some civilians and the far right parties for being Pro-Brexit.

There are always two sides to a coin. In this case there was a side, which resulted in Sensex plummeting down, Pound dropping down to levels not seen since 1985 and then the silver lining -Immigration being controlled. And then there was the side of the progressive citizens, the ones believing in Co-operation and not confrontation, a side, which believed in pulling together because without immigrants UK will collapse. On Thursday, June 23, UK saw the former being voted by 51.9% of the population.

Currently, UK is in the state of mourning and there’s an atmosphere of politic toxicity. While the world was still trying to wrap their head around the recent separation, David Cameron, British Prime minister announced his resignation saying, “I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination”. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party publicly retracted his claim that there’d be £350M a week set out for NHS (National Health Service) after the outcome of Brexit, after 17 million people voted to leave, some solely based on that piece of information. And all of the above happened in 24 hours. Phew!

Brexit (Representational IMage) Image source: The Street

Some would argue that Brexit was a boiling pot waiting to explode, that the resentment of the public in UK had reached its ‘Breaking Point’- headline of a controversial poster showing a vast queue of refugees which was unveiled by Nigel-and that the wrong doing of the government, the unemployment scene and the anti-immigrant feeling, all of it together had resulted in what UK stands as today. Separated but failed.

Impact on the Indian Market

“India remains a haven of stability in the risk environment” says Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance. Even as he spoke, the fact that Brexit knocked off Rs. 4 Lakh crore from Indian Stock market remained a fact. Tata Motors and Tata Steel have the most significant exposure to UK and fell over 10% on Thursday,June 23, due to Brexit snowball effect. Needless to say Indian owned Businesses in the UK would also feel the heat.

There’s a petition doing the rounds that is demanding for a second EU referendum. This petition was introduced by William Oliver Healey and it reads, “We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the Remain or Leave vote is less than 60 per cent based a turnout less than 75 per cent there should be another referendum.” It’s already signed by more than a million people and the numbers just seem to be going up. The response of the Government on the above matter is still pending.

As of now we can simply go by the statement, ‘The British people have spoken and the decision shall be respected.’